KUALA LUMPUR — Dr Mahathir Mohamad has published his proposed motion of no confidence against Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on his personal blog after being frustrated with his attempts in the lower house of Malaysia's parliament, the Dewan Rakyat.

In his blog post, the former prime minister said the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government had twice refused to debate the motion, placing it at the end of the day's proceedings, making it difficult due to time constraints to table the motion.

As such, he took to his blog and social media accounts to post his motion, stating unequivocally that the current government is not valid, was not voted in by the people and that it was made up of liars and backstabbers.

In the lengthy post, Dr Mahathir explained how Mr Muhyiddin was once an ally but then became greedy for power. He accused Mr Muhyiddin of betraying people’s mandate after he formed an alliance with the opposition.

He said Umno and PAS had painted DAP to be the villain and at the same time championed a Malay-Muslim rethoric to wrest back the government from DAP, which they compared to communists.

“Tan Sri (Muhyiddin) believed that the DAP could destroy the Malays. The way to avoid this was to bring down the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government and make a new one with Umno and PAS.

“I could not accept this suggestion because Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Umno, who have damaged the country, will return and be a part of the government. This is a betrayal of the people who voted for us,” Dr Mahathir said.

Dr Mahathir said accusing DAP of being able to tear down the Malays does not make sense.

He then accused Mr Muhyiddin of abusing his power as prime minister by offering gratuity to anyone who will support him, adding that the MP for Pagoh enticed the Opposition by inventing new ministerial positions to appease them and their followers.

“Those who refused to support him were stripped of their position and membership and this went as low as the divisional level,” claimed Dr Mahathir.

“This is against party law as they did nothing wrong by not supporting Muhyiddin.”

Apart from that, Dr Mahathir said PH had tried to clean up government agencies that were rife with mismanagement and corruption. However, when Mr Muhyiddin took over, he removed all qualified non-politically affiliated professionals and placed politicians in those same positions, thus returning to the way things were when Najib was in power.

Dr Mahathir also said Muhyiddin’s appointment as prime minister, without going through the general election, is a violation of the Federal Constitution.

He added that voters will eventually lose faith in the system as they cannot elect the person they want.

“What’s the use of a general election if the people you don’t want in office can take over the government with lies?

“This is the main reason I want to put in my motion of no confidence against the Tan Sri from Pagoh as prime minister. His power grab is depriving the people of their rights,” Dr Mahathir said.

Mr Muhyiddin, the current president of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, was appointed as the country’s eighth prime minister after a week of turmoil that followed the collapse of a PH government that had won the 2018 general election.

The turmoil started after elements of Bersatu and PKR — two of PH’s component parties — cooperated with Umno, PAS, and Sarawak-based parties to gain the approval of Malaysia's king to form a government after Dr Mahathir resigned on February 24.

PH, along with Dr Mahathir and several others, have accused Muhyiddin of forming a backdoor government that does not have the people’s mandate to be in power. MALAY MAIL